


Thawing the Ice - Steve

by Oudemia



Series: Who Holds the Devil [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Loki, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Espionage, Hurt Loki, Hydra (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Interrogation, Loki Redemption, M/M, Minor Violence, Protective Steve Rogers, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-01 13:23:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2774573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oudemia/pseuds/Oudemia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve doesn't get why everyone else is suddenly ok with Loki. Remember that whole New York thing? But when Loki is taken prisoner by Hydra, Steve reluctantly gets involved...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thawing the Ice - Steve

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who's following this, and left lovely comments and kudos! I hurried this one a bit, as I felt bad about the cliffhanger - yes kacikaci, it was a total dick move, and I'm sorry, does this make it ok? ;)  
> Anyway, I may go back and tidy it up at some point, but I wanted to get it done before Christmas. Not that it's particularly festive or anything..
> 
> Also it's very talky, but I've been wanting to write a sort of interrogation scene, so I guess that's inevitable.
> 
> I'll stop talking now...  
> Merry Christmas! XX
> 
>  
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Marvel own all the characters, not me. Er, except Robson, who's more of a plot device than a character anyway.

 

'Yeah, it's unprecedented, what of it? You think there are precedents for half the things we do here, Captain Rogers?'

 

Steve has to concede that Fury has a point, but that doesn't stop him from having major misgivings about this plan. It's just so unorthodox. He heard about a few instances of it during the war, but that was with protected civilians - medical staff, priests and the like. An exchange of prisoners just doesn't feel military, this is spy territory and the crossover always makes him uncomfortable. Shady deals and subterfuge and yes, SHIELD get something they want, but what's the price for that going to be? Is Loki worth what they're giving up?

 

Hydra have already accepted the deal - apparently Robson is one of their top scientists and they want him back alive. That in itself could have some pretty serious repercussions. With his intimate knowledge of SHIELD tech, he could prove a major threat to them and they're just going to let him walk out of there? And in exchange for _Loki_ of all people?? It's hard not to question Fury's wisdom, or to wonder if he'd do the same for all of them - for Clint or Natasha, even for Steve himself.

 

He looks up and sees Stark watching him with a belligerent expression that reminds him of their clashes in the early days of their acquaintance. The man looks exhausted, and Steve remembers that this isn't just about tactics and Loki's usefulness to SHIELD. He tries not to listen to rumours, but it hasn't escaped him that Tony has been seeing a lot of Loki lately. Whatever their relationship might be, and it's none of his business really, Tony's taking this very hard. Steve feels a rush of guilt - he needs to be more supportive of his friend - and he steps toward Tony with his hand out, but Stark is already speaking. 

 

'What are the options here? You know what Hydra does with spies. They'll execute him, Steve. Once they've tortured everything they need out of him. Loki's strong but...' 

 

He breaks off abruptly, and Steve's heart goes out to his friend. But still, they can't let their emotions blind them to the dangers here.

 

Natasha steps up quietly and once again he's taken aback by the speed of her recovery - in only two weeks she seems completely back to her former self. Almost completely that is... Her fierce new advocacy of Loki worries Steve - it's too soon, too sudden. Not to mention the fact that she was delirious and near death when she was found on the mountain - he has the utmost respect for Natasha, but can they really trust her account of the preceding events?

 

She's looking serious, her brow furrowed. 'I get that you don't approve, Steve, and if you don't want to come along, that's fine, it's your choice. But you need to accept that this is how it's going to be. We could use your support, but we'll go alone if we have to.'

 

Steve looks from her to Stark. 'It's only... it's one heck of a risk - what if it's a trap? Just the two of you against...'

 

'Three'.

 

Steve had almost forgotten Clint was there, sitting in the corner and silently taking it all in. This is all starting to get way too bizarre, and he shakes his head in disbelief. First Fury, then Stark, then Natasha, and now Clint? Is Loki brainwashing them? And who's going to be next?? 'You too, Clint?' he asks weakly, and the archer lets out a slightly uncomfortable laugh. 'Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are. But, I promised Tony, so...'

 

Tony looks up in surprise and Barton explains, 'I said that if Loki could prove he was on our side and not just his own, I'd give him a chance. Well, I'd say he's done that, wouldn't you? I intend to keep my word, and I can't do that while he's locked away in some enemy base, can I?'

 

Steve sighs, and throws up his hands. 'OK, I'll come - but only because you need somebody along who's still got their head straight. Clearly everyone else has gone plumb crazy.'

 

Natasha smiles her quiet half-smile, but Tony pulls him into a bearhug that would have taken his breath away if he hadn't had superstrength. Well, at least he'll die popular if this all goes wrong. With the team now in place, details are finalised, and everything is ready, but at the last minute as Steve is leaving, Fury pulls him aside. His face is grimmer than usual, and Steve braces himself for something unpleasant.

 

'I'm glad you're onboard, Captain - we're going to need your help. You know the drill, you have to debrief Loki immediately, as soon as you've got him on the plane. You've had the least direct contact with him up till now and we need someone with some distance, who isn't personally involved. I know it's rough, but are you up to the job?' Reluctantly Steve agrees. It's true, despite working for the same organisation, he's had no contact with Loki since his return to Earth. Frankly, he's been avoiding him, and who wouldn't?

 

'I know you think this is crazy,' the Director is saying, 'but you have to trust me when I say there's a larger plan at work here. Look at what's happening - all of this, the bargaining, the fact that Hydra were willing to strike a deal at all - you know what it means?' (Yes, of course he knows. And he's glad that it's being acknowledged finally.) 'Whatever they wanted from Loki, they already have it. Your job is to find out what it was.'

 

*****

 

It's a cold grey morning when the exchange takes place, and that seems somehow appropriate. Things like this shouldn't happen in the sunshine. They've agreed on a neutral location, and a particular bridge, and the four of them - Steve, Tony, Natasha and Clint - are dressed in plainclothes so as to present less of a threat. They land the Bus nearby and walk the remaining distance with Robson between them. The scientist's hands are cuffed behind him, but he's in reasonable shape, to Steve's immense relief. Emotions are running high at SHIELD HQ at the moment, and a Hydra mole could hardly expect to be handled with kid gloves, especially after he nearly got Romanoff killed. Then again, he's their only bargaining chip, and if they lose him, they lose Loki. They can only hope that Hydra are working on the same principle...

 

They've arrived before the specified time, but the delegation from Hydra is already there, and Steve catches sight of a tall dark-haired figure in their midst. He's too far away for them to be able to tell much, but at least he's here. It might still be a trap, but at least they're _pretending_ to honour the agreement so far. Tony can hardly keep still, but Steve knows it's best to do everything precisely by the book in these situations - any deviation from form could set off a catastrophic chain of events and get everyone killed. So slowly does it, however callous that may seem. Loki can hold out for a few minutes more.

 

At exactly 10 a.m., Steve removes Robson's handcuffs and gives him a gentle shove, and the scientist sets off at a nervous trot across the bridge. At the same moment, Loki stumbles forward, rights himself, and begins the long walk toward them. It's immediately apparent that something is wrong. Normally poised and purposeful, the god is walking like someone newly-blind. His gait is unsure, and his progress difficult - Robson passes him when he is barely a quarter of the way across, and while the scientist hurries by with his head down, Loki stops and stares at him in apparent confusion. He even turns to watch as Robson reaches the other side, and is bundled into a vehicle and driven away. 

 

'Loki!' 

 

Steve turns round to see Tony starting off across the bridge toward the lone figure, and he puts an arm out to stop him. But Stark turns on him with a look of savage desperation that's almost a snarl, and he hears Natasha say quietly, 'Let him go, Steve, it's just us now.' 

 

So they all follow Tony across the bridge, quickly at first, but then slowing down as they see Loki take a few uncertain steps back. As they approach, he presses himself against the parapet of the bridge, and Steve thinks randomly that if he were a cat, his ears would have been flattened against his head. And then he does something he's been resisting up until now - he puts himself in Loki's position. How must he feel at this moment, traumatised and afraid, and faced with the sight of four people rushing frantically toward him? They're lucky he hasn't leapt off the bridge in panic. Up close Loki looks even worse, like he's going to fly apart at any moment. He looks uninjured apart from some minor cuts and bruises, but pale and dishevelled, on the verge of collapse. Tony reaches him first and Steve hears him speaking to Loki, but the god gives him barely a glance, and instead stares distantly over his right shoulder at the others. He's clearly disorientated, and no wonder. They need to get him back to headquarters, and fast. But in the meantime, Steve has a job to do, and not one he's looking forward to.

 

Natasha has reached Loki too now, and peers into his face, clearly worried. He returns her gaze with faint curiosity, as though he remembers her from a long time ago, and she curses softly in Russian, and drops her gaze to his hands. On closer inspection, Loki's handcuffs are in fact a pair of joined wristbands, identical to the ones Natasha described, and she gestures at them angrily. 'Stark, can you get these off, they're hurting him?' 

 

Tony reaches for Loki's hands and immediately Loki pulls back with a hiss, as if he's been burnt. The look of devastation on Tony's face is awful to see, and Steve intervenes, wanting to save him more pain. 

'Will you let him remove the cuffs, Loki? It'll help you feel better, I promise.' He turns to Tony and whispers. 'Let's just try not to spook him. Keep things professional, ok?'

Stark blanches and looks on the verge of saying something, but then thinks better of it and turns his attention to the cuffs. This time Loki lets him near, but only because he appears to have shut down completely. The cuffs actually come off quite easily, but the god seems barely to notice, and as they lead him back to the Bus, he stares vacantly ahead of him without acknowledging anything, or anyone. By now, Steve feels quite sickened at what he's going to have to do.

 

 

 

Once on the aircraft, they seat Loki in a chair by the window, where he slumps, loose-limbed, leaning his head against the headrest. Tony hovers, offering him a drink, food, anything he needs, but Loki flinches away from him every time he gets too close. Steve can tell how badly he wants to touch Loki but he's holding himself back with an immense effort. It's painful to watch - if this goes on much longer, they'll have not one but two traumatised people to deal with. Meanwhile Natasha sits on the edge of a table nearby, watching the interaction between the two with a worried frown, and Clint stalks the length of the room, cracking nervous jokes. Loki's eyes flit from one to the other, back and forth, faster and faster, and suddenly Steve sees something flare in them, like the pilot light before a gas explosion. It's too much - Loki is overwhelmed by all this, and if they don't back off right now, he's going to explode, possibly quite literally.

 

Steve looks around the room in much the same way that a schoolteacher might survey a tittering classroom. 'Hey, come on guys - can't you see we're crowding him? Let's give him some breathing room, ok? For Pete's sake, look at him, he's done in!'

 

Loki's green eyes are fixed on him now but their gaze is unfocussed, and it's true - everything about him speaks of bone-deep exhaustion. Steve wants to let him rest, he really does. He'd like to just drape a blanket over him and watch until he falls asleep, to make sure nobody disturbs him. But he can't.

 

Tony protests at first, especially when Steve tells him he's going to stay and keep an eye on Loki. It's threatening to turn into a fight, when suddenly they hear a low ragged voice from over by the window.

'Please, go.' 

 

They look over at Loki, startled to hear him speak for the first time. Steve was beginning to wonder if he even could. Loki repeats the words, and this time he's staring directly at Tony. Now 'devastated' doesn't even begin to describe the look on Tony's face as he turns wordlessly and disappears through the door to the next room. Steve looks pleadingly at Clint and Natasha and with a nod, they both follow suit, leaving him alone, for the first time, with Loki.

 

The first thing he does is to push the guilt to the back of his mind - he'll have to deal with it at some point, but not now. Fury was right, he does know how this works. The interview has to be fast, before a rescued prisoner has a chance to forget, while their impressions are still horribly fresh. They aren't given a chance to rest, they're kept tired and hungry, and dressed in the same filthy ragged clothes, and the result is that their mind is still back there, in the hell they've been rescued from. It's a brutal ugly process, but it does have a good success rate. Steve refuses to mince words though, to make himself feel better - this isn't a debriefing, it's an interrogation.

 

That's not to say he can't make concessions. 'Would you like a drink, Loki? Something hot maybe?' The god looks frozen, his hands almost blue - he's barefoot and dressed in thin indoor clothing and the weather here is bitter. Those bastards... At least SHIELD had given Robson a coat. Loki's lips move and Steve has to strain to hear him. 'Water....'

 

He pours out a glass from a jug on the table and Loki takes just a small sip before pushing it away from him. A bead of blood forms on his cracked lips, and Steve proffers a handkerchief. Loki accepts it absently, but just holds it balled up in his fist, and in the end Steve takes it from him, and dabs at the blood himself. Loki eyes him warily, and Steve can well understand his confusion. He's read about this happening to double agents - if you switch sides often enough, lie to enough people, eventually you're going to lose track of who you are and who you can trust. One major shock can start the whole web of lies unravelling, and you're left there, strangled by a thread of your own making. Some people never find their way back from it, because they've long forgotten who they were in the first place, and Loki has been playing this game for years, even with his own family.

 

Steve wonders about the best way to begin. Military techniques aren't necessarily the right way to go here - normally he'd approach this like a soldier but Loki's not a soldier, he's... ok, there's no description of him which is going to be helpful, so maybe he needs an entirely different approach. Loki needs a friend - that's universal, right?

 

Steve takes the seat facing Loki and leans forward, his elbows on his knees. 'Do you remember me?'

 

Loki glances at him briefly before turning away with a stiff nod. 

 

'Ok, that's a good start then. And do you know where you are now?'

 

Loki's eyes move around the aircraft. 'A prison.'

 

'Hey, no, look around you. This is an Airborne Mobile Command Station, and it belongs to SHIELD. You're not with Hydra any more - you're safe now.'

 

Loki's voice is flat, devoid of emotion. 'It is a prison. Like the one before, and the one that will follow.'

 

Oh no, this is not good - none of this is good.

 

Steve leans further forward to emphasise his words. 'Loki, SHIELD isn't a prison, it's a job, and you're not a prisoner, you're a... a member of the team. I don't know if you realise this but people have been worried about you. Fury, Romanoff, Stark, they'll all relieved that you're back and from what I've seen, not one of them forms attachments lightly. They aren't your gaolers. These people _care_ about you, Loki.'

 

He could swear that he feels the temperature drop by a few degrees and he knows instantly that he's struck a nerve. Loki is staring at him and all he can do is stare back in horrified fascination. He's only seen those clear green eyes up close a few times, sparkling with wickedness or malicious glee, but always vibrant. Not like now. Now it's like looking through the broken windows of an automobile accident and catching a glimpse of something awful inside. He doesn't want to see it but he can't look away either. This is important. And at least he's got a reaction now - it's something to start from.

 

'Aren't you glad to have people who care about you? That's what most people want, after all.'

 

Loki's voice is nothing but a hollow whisper. 'It is a mistake. We have all made a mistake.'

 

' _Why_?'

 

Loki turns away to stare out of the window, seemingly losing interest. They aren't getting anywhere and he can practically see Loki building a shell around himself. He has to get to him before it becomes impenetrable. But it never sits well with him, handling someone so tender, so obviously damaged. Like touching an open wound. 

 

He moves his chair forward until his knees are almost touching Loki's, but takes care to avoid actual contact. An ill-judged move could ruin everything. 'Loki, will you tell me what happened to you at the Hydra base?'

 

Loki continues to stare out at the clouds and Steve thinks desperately, I'm losing him. Somehow he cares more about that than he thought he would.

 

'I know how they work. I wish I didn't. Did they torture you?'

 

Finally, Loki's left shoulder moves in the barest hint of a shrug, but to Steve he might as well have been screaming **_YES_**.

 

'What did they do to you, Loki?'

 

'What do you think they did?' Logically it should have sounded bitter but the question comes out flat and indifferent, and it makes Steve shudder.

 

'I know that people think I'm naive,' he says after a short silence, 'but I've seen more than my share of how cruel people can be to each other. I know that there's more than one way to hurt someone and it doesn't always involve inflicting pain on their body.'

 

Loki frowns and looks down at his lap. Steve follows his gaze and notices he's staring at his hands. Like the rest of him, they are slender and elegant, and yet he's looking at them with a kind of revulsion, like two dead spiders lying there in his lap. Up until now, Steve hadn't noticed the livid burns circling his wrists.

 

'The bracelets hurt you.'

 

Loki stirs uncomfortably. 'That was incidental, I think. They were intended mainly to keep my powers suppressed.'

 

That doesn't make it any better. 'How much of your powers? Just your magic, or did it go further than that?'

 

The look levelled at him is vaguely accusatory, and he feels a flush of shame, as if he's prying. Forgive me, he wants to protest, it's my job, but he knows how little that would mean. And then, to his surprise, Loki chooses to answer the question. 'They took away my magic, my strength, my will, my memory. My purpose. My sense of self. Is that far enough?'

 

Yes! Too far. This has all gone too far. And yet Steve has to push him even further... 'Do you know why?'

 

Loki's next inhalation is shaky, and it's like watching cracks appear in a dam when you're standing just downriver. 'What do you want me to say, Captain Rogers? Only tell me and I will say it. And then please let me be.'

 

Steve sighs, 'I don't enjoy hearing this stuff, you know. You've been through something terrible, and I could happily go my whole life without knowing the details, but there are things, people, at stake here. Hydra did something to you, and if you want to get back out there, we need to know what happened to you - it's all part of the deal.'

 

Baleful eyes bore into him and Loki asks curiously, 'Why do you think I would want to 'get back out there'?'

 

'Well what else are you going to do? Take it from me, it's hard for us anachronistic folk to get a normal job these days.' It's a lame joke, but levity sometimes works to change the dynamic of a conversation. 'And besides, it'd be a terrible waste of your talents, don't you think?'

 

There's a gleam of something in Loki's eyes, something wistful. 'Perhaps I want to start again, away from all this, instead of always being used as a weapon by someone. How long before I am finally master of my own fate?'

 

'Do you really think that's all you are, a weapon? Do you think that's what Tony sees in you?'

 

In a flash Loki is on his feet, and oh god, there it is, the old Loki that Steve remembers from Stuttgart. Bizarrely it's almost a relief to see it - it means the rest of him is still in there too. But that doesn't stop it from being scary as hell as the god glares down at him. 'How dare you try and use Stark to manipulate me??' he hisses, and it takes all his courage and willpower for Steve to stay seated. He faces Loki out calmly, and hopes his fear isn't too obvious on his face. 'I'm not, it was an honest question. It's obvious that Stark considers you a friend - why do you think that is?'

 

Loki throws back his head with a mirthless laugh, and leans down toward him with a cruel fire burning in his eyes. 'A _friend_? Is that what you think?' A sneer twists his lip and suddenly he's darting forward and his hands are in Steve's hair, his mouth on Steve's mouth, and it's as though he's trying to steal his very soul, so deep and savage is the kiss. Steve is too dumbstruck to move until the moment Loki releases him and steps back with a triumphant grin. He wipes a smear of blood - his or Steve's? - from his lip with the back of his hand, saying, 'What kind of a friend would act so? Do not mistake me for one of your paltry band of heroes. There is nothing in me which wishes you well.'

 

At that moment, he does look almost demonic, and Steve rises to his feet also. Is it possible that Hydra have undone all Loki's work of the past months and returned him to his former villainy? Or has it all been a lie and there never was any good in him at all? But no, some part of him doesn't quite believe it - it's just too easy. He catches sight of the slightest tremor in Loki's hands, and thinks, what if this is the lie? But he has no time to explore that thought as an invisible band begins to tighten around his throat, and Loki smiles at him, his head on one side. 'You should not have freed my magic, Captain. What is to stop me from killing you now, hmm?'

 

Steve's fingers scrabble at his throat, but there's nothing there to fight against, and after a while his vision begins to grey out and he falls to his knees. Then suddenly the constriction is gone, but he only has time to gulp one lungful of precious air before a kick drops him to the ground and a foot presses down on his chest. 'I have no need of magic to destroy one such as you - I will use my bare hands,' Loki snarls at him, and no, this has gone far enough, and Steve grabs his ankle and twists hard. Loki is forced to drop to the floor - it's either that or let his leg be broken - but he rallies fast and hurls himself onto Steve, eyes ablaze. Steve uses the momentum to roll them both over, but he only has the upper hand for a moment before a knife appears in Loki's hand and he has to throw himself clumsily backward to avoid a slash to his ribs. Loki is on him again in a flash, and Steve makes a grab for his knife-hand, but just as he does, the blade appears in the other hand and he gasps as it nicks the flesh of his shoulder. Loki scrambles to his knees, panting, but then his breath stops short as his attention is caught by something over Steve's shoulder. 

 

'What the hell's going on in there?' Tony's voice carries through the door, and it's beginning to open when Loki brings up both arms and it slams shut with a crash. Another, sweeping gesture, and every item of furniture in the room flies past Steve and piles up against the door. There are other ways around, but it'll take them a while, and meanwhile Steve is trapped with a dangerously unhinged deity bent on destroying him. Loki looks possessed, and through his fear, Steve wonders how he is still able to feel bad for him. He's fighting for his life and yet he still wants to help Loki - _why_? And then it hits him... He isn't fighting for his life. Loki could have caught him off guard at any point. He could have used magic to throttle the life out of him before anyone else knew what was happening. He can conjure up a knife from nowhere, and yet what has he done with it? Targeted the least vulnerable areas of Steve's body - a feint at his flank, a shallow scratch on his shoulder. He puts his hand to the wound and it's barely even bleeding. Loki has been play-acting, but why? He's done everything he can to make Steve believe he's dangerous, irredeemable, but with all the power at his command, he's done nothing more than trash some furniture and ruin a perfectly good shirt. Think, think - what is really going on here?

 

Loki is still on his knees, the dagger in one hand, shaking with the aftermath of his magical outburst. He looks down at Steve, and summons a scornful half-smile. 'Had enough yet, Captain?'

 

And then Steve understands, and the realisation hits him like a blow to the face. This fight was never about killing _him_.

 

He sits up, slowly, non-threateningly, and Loki's knuckles whiten on the hilt of his knife, but Steve puts out a firm hand. 'Yes. I've had enough, and so have you. But I'm not going to kill you, Loki.'

 

It's as if someone has flicked a switch inside the god and he just crumples. The dagger vanishes, and Loki's face is a mask of despair as he begs in a broken voice, 'Please... '

 

God, and to think that he might have done... Loki has half-fallen against the bulkhead and as Steve crawls nearer on his hand and knees and reaches for him, he flinches away. That small gesture tells Steve so much - this man dismissed the memory of torture with a shrug, but he's terrified by a simple show of concern. And this is no longer about SHIELD, or accessing information. It's about helping someone in trouble, and suddenly Steve feels a little bit better about what he's doing. He inches a tiny bit closer and Loki moans, turning his head away. 'Don't. Get away from me.'

 

'Why?' Steve asks softly. 

 

'Because I'll hurt you,' Loki whispers, and that's it, the breakthrough they've been waiting for.

 

'I know you don't want that. Why do you think you'll hurt me?'

 

Loki turns terrified eyes on him. 'Can you not see? Hydra let me go for a reason! They want me to turn on you, to destroy SHIELD from within...'

 

Steve suddenly remembers his Homer, and speaks without thinking. 'You mean like a Trojan Horse?'

 

Loki looks momentarily confused - Steve sometimes forgets he isn't the only one who's missed out on a wealth of cultural references and he makes a mental note to fill the god in later.

 

But right now... 'Did they implant something in you? Brainwash you?'

 

Loki shakes his head wretchedly from side to side, 'I cannot remember! I remember only pain, and the sensation of my mind being hollowed out and rebuilt. I don't know what they did, but I heard them talking and I know what they intend for me. I can feel it - something - inside me and I can't...I'm....'

 

Scared? Of course he is. And Steve's loathing for Hydra increases by a substantial margin as he watches Loki curl in on himself, shaking.

 

'We've got you now, Loki. They'll check you for implants, run tests on your brain function, if there's anything there they'll find it, I promise.'

 

But Loki is near breaking point now, and he isn't listening. 'Tell Barton I'm sorry. I deserve this after what I did to him. I'm sorry...'

 

An eye for an eye? That's not how they work, and he's been trying to make amends. This isn't justice, it's unfair. 

 

Loki's muttering is becoming broken, more incoherent, 'I cannot... please... not again. I would die before hurting him.'

 

Him? Of course, Stark. Steve remembers how Loki was particularly twitchy around him before, and it all makes sense now. He had no idea things had gone so far between them. When did their feelings have time to become so intense, so fiercely protective? He marvels at how much he's learnt about Loki in such a short space of time.

 

'And if you'd died just now, if he'd lost you, you don't think that would hurt him?'

 

Loki's breath hitches, and at least he's listening now. 'Only for a time.'

 

Steve smiles gently at him. 'I think you understand humans better than you pretend to.'

 

Frightened green eyes fix on his, and Loki's voice is hoarse with emotion. 'I knew this time would come, that I would bring harm to those around me, but I pretended I was wrong. And I was selfish. I wanted him so very badly...'

 

And at that Steve can't contain himself any more, he reaches out and pulls Loki into his arms. The god stiffens with fear, but only for a moment, then he buries his face in Steve's chest, and long fingers tangle in the sleeves of his shirt. And Steve almost misses his words, so quiet and muffled are they. 'Help me.' 

 

His heart aches with pity, and 'Yes,' he replies, 'of course I'll help you. We'll all help you. You don't have to go through this alone.'

 

Steve holds him for a long time, and although Loki isn't crying, great tremors are running through his body and his shoulders are heaving. Steve lifts one hand to stroke his dark hair, and gradually he feels the tremors die down until eventually Loki is limp in his arms. He doesn't even stir when Tony and the others burst in from the other entrance, and Steve puts a finger to his lips and beckons Tony forward. Gently disentangling himself, he moves back, and Stark slips into his place. Loki's eyes open just briefly before he wraps his arms tightly around Tony, and Tony begins to whisper soft urgent words into his hair. And the last thing Steve sees as he turns away are the tears running down Stark's face. 

 

As he silently leaves the room, pushing the other two in front of him, Steve smiles to himself. First Fury, then Stark, then Natasha and Clint. And now him. Who is going to be the next to fall under Loki's spell?

 


End file.
